Shae and I fell in love with the Finger Lakes region of New York while staying there for a couple of weeks. There’s all kind of beautiful scenery, with Watkins Glen State Park being one of the highlights.
Waterfalls galore, a gorge, all kinds of other natural beauty, stone bridges and more – all along the 1.5 mile Gorge Trail running through the park.
As you can see on the map above, dogs aren’t allowed on the Gorge Trail which meant we had to leave Truffles at our Airbnb. That was a shame, but I can understand why – the trail gets very narrow and slippery at times, so having dogs wandering around and potentially having their leashes tripping people up could be dangerous.
The park has a shuttle bus that runs between the three different park entrances. At the time of our visit in 2023 rides were $6 per adult, with children aged 10 and under being free.
The main thing to see at Watkins Glen State Park is the Gorge Trail which you can access from any of the entrances.
We parked at the South Entrance and walked down the path towards the lily pond. It’s all that’s left of the Glen Mountain House which was once on the site and first opened in 1872. They used to harvest ice for the house from the lily pond, but nowadays it just serves as a home for wildlife.
From there it was only a short walk to the suspension bridge which gave us our first taste of the beautiful gorge carved by Glen Creek running through the center of the park. As we’ve traveled around the country on our 50 state road trip it’s been interesting seeing all the different geology around the country, from volcanic rock in some parts to red rock in places like Arizona and New Mexico to the thin, numerous layers of rock at Watkins Glen State Park.
If you arrive at the South Entrance and cross over the suspension bridge, you’re about one third of the way along the trail from the eastern side of it. We decided to head eastwards which brought us to the awesome Cavern Cascade.
The trail takes you behind the waterfall; be careful along here as the ground gets a little damp plus you’ll be lightly sprayed by the water.
I imagine this waterfall would look even more incredible in the spring once the winter snow has started melting.
The trail continues down stone staircases and gives you a nice view of Cavern Cascade as a backdrop to Minnehaha Falls.
Towards the eastern end of the Gorge Trail you’ll come to Sentry Bridge which is just one of many made of stone.
From there you can look down Glen Creek towards the village of Watkins Glen.
The trail continues down towards the Main Entrance. We walked a little bit of the way down there before heading back to see the rest of the Gorge Trail. When heading back we got a good view of Sentry Bridge from below. In the photo below you can see a hole/tunnel behind the bridge; that was a flume hole that water was diverted through back in the 1800s to power a mill.
There are 19 waterfalls in Watkins Glen State Park, so it’s never long until you see more of them.
There’s no shortage of scenic views, with waterfalls sandwiched between the gorge’s (and gorgeous) rock walls and stone bridges crossing over at times.
Despite the seemingly endless amazing views in the park, one of the highlights is Rainbow Falls. You’ll start seeing some short waterfalls as you approach that section.
It’s when you round the corner though that you get the most stunning views of all. Seriously – how magical is this?!
Similar to Cavern Cascade, the Gorge Trail takes you behind Rainbow Falls.
I loved how most of the bridges in the park were built with stone to help them blend in with the rock walls.
One section of the trail is known as Frowning Cliff because of how close the cliffs are together. Due to their proximity, this section of the gorge doesn’t get much sunlight which means that you still get ice along this part until late spring – something that wasn’t a problem for our visit in August!
You’re not allowed to cross over the creek other than when using bridges. While it was a bit of a shame that they don’t allow you to go down to the water, I’m actually glad that it’s prohibited because it meant it was possible to get photos all along the Gorge Trail without people being down on the rocks in the creek.
Towards the end of the western side of the trail we did sit down near the creek though on the trail’s rock wall to have some lunch.
The last part of the Gorge Trail takes you up 180 steps to the West Entrance and ends at a railway bridge that’s still in use.
Shae and I decided to take it easy and so didn’t walk up the 180 steps seeing as it didn’t seem like there’d be too much more to see. We therefore headed back down the Gorge Trail to the suspension bridge and back to our car, admiring the scenery once again as we headed back.
Hopefully these photos have given just a taste of how incredibly beautiful Watkins Glen State Park is. I think Custer State Park in South Dakota is still my favorite state park of the road trip so far, but Watkins Glen is definitely up there.
Here’s a video of various parts of the Gorge Trail from our visit there to give you an even better idea of what it’s like and why you should visit.
[…] Lakewood Vineyards is on the southwestern end of Seneca Lake, just a few short miles north of the cute village of Watkins Glen (side note: you should absolutely visit Watkins Glen State Park – here’s why). […]